I ride a lot commuting but on holidays decided to taste downhill for the first time and was planning on 4A in thailand...Got told only 4C was running...The rest is history never crashed on the jumps...Gloves protection gear everything...

4 slow crashes, Body sore for 3 days (not from minor crashes), hands/fingers become useless, blisters on hands for weeks...And I almost went of a cliff that nobody told me about...One of the instructors (first shift road rider) went flying over the handle bars on one of the jumps and landed in the trees he could have complications for a while...

I would just like to say that I could not stop talking about the experience for days I felt like I had been to the end of the earth...Is this normal?

As a relative newcomer to cycling, I went to Lysterfield for the first time last night and endlessly chose B-lines. I have a family to support and job to hold down, not wear a cast as a badge of honour!

I do the same at new tracks. Heck, i even do it first time around on my home track after heavy rain events like we had last week. The track changes dramatically and i hate surprises A lot of the approaches are blind unfortunately.

The trick with the challenging stuff is to start small somewhere else and build up.